Theft-protection door for buildings



Jan. 15; 1929. 1,698,994

E. c. HALL THEFT PROTECTION DOOR FOR BUILDINGS Original Filed Aug. 2,1924 2 Sheats-Sheet 1 1N1 m M @94 ulH l E. C. HALL THEFT PROTECTION DOORFOR BUILDINGS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Original Filed Aug. 2, 1924 Patented Jan.15, 1929.

warren STATES EDGAR C. HALL, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

THEFT-PROTECTION DOOR FOR BUILDINGS.

Application filed August 2, 1924, Serial No. 729,843.

This invention relates to theft protection doors for buildings, and moreparticularly to means adapted to be used in connecton with revolubledoors such as are used in large buildings, and embodying a plurality ofdo sures radially disposed and adapted to rotate on a common axis, andspaced at re ular intervals so as to provide ingress and egress tobuildings.

The main object of my invention is to provide means adapted to beconnected with doors of the type mentioned, and electrically controlledfrom points within the building, whereby the building may be closedagainst egress to all persons therewithin at the will of an operator, sothat in the case of robberies the thief may be prevented from escapingand his arrest may be effected.

Another object is to provide a rotatable door embodying a plurality ofclosures arranged for operation in a given direction for affordingingress and egress to the building,

and provided with means for preventing the operation thereof in areverse direction under normal conditions, and manually controlled meansfor preventing the operation thereof in either direction and for firmlylocking said doors against operation as occasion may require.

Another object is to provide in combination with a door of the charactermentioned, a compartment above said door and mechanism associatedtherein and adapted to be manually controlled for locking said dooragainst egress from points within the building.

Still other and subsidiary objects may appear as the description of myinvention progresses.

I have shown a practical embodiment of my invention, subject tomodification within the scope of he appended claims without departingfrom the spirit thereof, in the accompany ing drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary sectional elevation of a rotatable doorembodying a plurality of closures and equipped with my improved lockingdevices;

Fig. 2 is a sectional plan of the same on line 2 2 of Fig. 1. e

Fig. 3 is a sectional plan of the same on line 1 .L e A frgmentaryelevation of a lock:

on line 4.---4 of Fig, 1.-

Renewed May 31, 1928.

Fig. 5 is a sectional elevation on line 55 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 6 is a sectional elevation on line 66 of Fig. 1, and

Fig. 7 is a sectional elevation on line 7 7 of Fig. 1.

As shown particularly in Figs 1, Q'and 3, the rotatable door unit is ofthe ordinary type such as is used in large buildings, and comprises aplurality of radially disposed closures D, D, etc., mounted on a centralpost P and rotatable about a common axis or shaft S, all of saidclosures D, D, etc, being regularly spaced apart so as to providesegmental compartments therebetween of ample area to accommodate aperson making ingress to or egress from the building.

The door unit is partially enclosed by arcuate wall members W, IV, builtinto the outer wall sections IV, W, and having openings as at O, O, onthe inner and outer sides thereof formed between the adjacentextremities of the wall members V, W.

It will be noted that in Fig. 2 I have shown an arrangement embodyingfive of the closures D, while in Fig. 3 I have shown but four of saidclosures. The number of said closures is immaterial to my invention, butthe number of said closures and the Width of the openings 0, 0, shouldbe such that a pair of the closures will span the distance between thewall members W, WV, so as to close the outer 0 aening 0 against egressregardless of the position of the several closures D, D, etc.

My improvements include the provision at the top of the door unit of acompartment C in which I provide suitable mechanism for the locking andthe unlocking of the doors under given conditions, and to this end theusual partition 1 is provided at the top of the closures D, D, etc., andthereabove a skeleton frame of wood 2 is provided, on the upper side ofwhich is mounted a removable metallic plate 3 forming a bottom for thecompartment C, the central wall W being formed continuously around thecompartment C. Said compartment is closed at the top by means of apartition 4 which ma be wholly or partially removable for afior ingfixed thereto at its upper end a ratchet R and a locking disc R, theupper end of the shaft S being journalcd in a suitable bearing 5 whichis bolted or otherwise secured to the metallicplate 3 forming the bottomof compartment C.

The ratchet R has a plurality of teeth, 6, 6, on its periphery which areadapted to be engaged by pawl 7 pivoted on a screw or bolt 8 to theplate 3, and resiliently held in engagement with said ratchet by meansof a compression spring 9 which is held in compression between a lug 10on said pawl and an angle bracket 11 attached to the plate 3 so as toprevent the rotation of the doors D, D, etc, in a clock-wise direction,but permitting the rotation of said doors under normal conditions in acounter clockwise direction.

Thelocking disc R has a substantially larger diameter than the ratchetR, and is provided on its periphery with a plurality of elongatednotches 12, 12, etc, which are saaced to correspond to the spacing ofthe doors or closures D, D, etc, and are of a corresponding number, andsaid notches are adapted to be engaged when it is desired to lock saiddoors against egress by a portion 13 formed on a latch member L,

Said latch member L is pivoted at 14 on a cast metal base member 15which is suitably secured to and held in place on the plate 3, and acompression spring 16 is adapted to be held in compression between alock 17 on latch L and an angle bracket- 18 attached to plate 3 so as tourge said latch member in wardly for the purpose of seating the portion.13 thereof in one or the other of the notches 12' of disc R. Latch L,however, is normally prevented "from operative engagement with disc R bymeans of a lever L which is pivoted at 19 to the base 15 and has a yoke20 on one end thereof which is pivoted at 21 to latch at a point midwaybetween the portion 13 and the axis 14 thereof.

Member L has a yoke 22 which carries a roller 23 and said roller isadapted to normally engage the end 24 of a leverA which is pivoted at 25to base 15, asshown in 2, for preventing the engagement of portion 13 01latch L with the notches 12 of disc R. The lever A. may form an armaturefor an electromagnet M, or as shown said lever may be of non-metallicmaterial and may be provided with an armature a of magnetic materialcarried in a boss 26 thereof and positioned opposite the core 27 of saidelectromagnet.

The electromagnet M is suitably mounted in a bracket 28 which isattached at points 29 and 30 to the base member 15 and is adaptedto beconnected electrically with a battery or battery set E by means of apair of wires 31 and 32 which have a push button or switch. 33interposed therein, as shown, or

otherwise arranged tor energizing the m net atthe Will of an operatorwithin building.

The armature lever A is adapted to be urged outwardly from theelectromagnet M by means of a spring 34, and it will be ob served thatwhen the magnet is energized by pushing the button 33 and closing thecircuit of the batteries B, the armature a would be attracted by thecore 27 of the elect oinag et, and the lever A will move to the r t sothat the roller 23 on the yoke 22 of lever L may clear the end 24 ofsaid lever A and permit the portion 13 of latch L to ride upon theperiphery of the disc'lt, until one of the notches 12 on said discregisters therewith, when the compression of spring 16 will serve topositively seat the portion 13 of latch L in said notch and lock theclosures D, D, etc, against rotation in either direction.

Latch L has an extension 36 which extends outwardly from the portion 13thereof and is pivotally connected at 37 with bars 67, 67, and inwardlyof the point 37 said extension 36 has a pin 39 which engages aslot 40 inthe inner end of bar 38, so as to permit latch L to move independentlyof said bar 38.

As shown in Fig. 5 the bar 38 extends outwardly through the wall N andinto a metallic case 41 which has a door 42 in the front thereof and issuitably attached to wall \V in such a manner that it may not be removedexcept when the door 42 is open. Said door is adapted to be closed andlocked against unauthorized access by means of a hasp 43 or othersuitable device, and a lock 44 is adapted to be controlled by akey 45which keyis retained by a person or persons within the building and aduplicate of which is kept by ofiicers for alfording access to thecontrol box 41.

The inner end of the control bar 38 pivoted at 46 to a control lever 47which is pivotally mounted at 48 on a bracket 49 carried in the box 41,and said control lever has a handle 50 which is adapted to be pulledoutwardly when the box is opened by authorized persons for moving thebar 38 outwardly so as to release the latch L from the locking disc R inorder that the door unit may he again rendered operative after the samehas been locked.

In addition to the locking mechanism described, I have provided one ormore additional locking devices enclosed within the compartment C andadapted for direct engagement with and for locking the closures D, D,etc, independently of said other mech anism, but connected therewith aswill hereinafter appear.

Each of said additional locking devices includes a bracket 51 which hasspaced lugs 52, 52 thereon between and on which a locking dog 53 ismounted as shown in Fig. 6 on a transverse shaft or pin 54. Said brac 51K (it 1:

are securely attached to the plate 3 forming the bottom of compartment Gand are positioned at points close to the wall WV of said compartment.At a point below the shaft 54 each of said brackets is provided with aboss 55 which is adapted to slidably receive a rod 56. In each of saiddevices the member 53 has an end portion 57 which is adapted to seat ina socket 58 of a member 59 attached to the upper edge, and one of whichis provided on each side of each of the doors D.

The inner end of the rod 56 is adapted to engage a lug 60 on member 53,so that when the latch L moves into operative engagement with the discR, the member 53 will fall from a normally upward position, shown inbroken lines in Fig. 6, and out of engagement with the sockets 58 on thedoors D, D, etc., into operative engagement with one of the other ofsaid socketmembers depending upon the position of the respective doors.

When the locking mechanism, however, is

in the position shown in Fig. 2, the rod 56' supports the member 53 inits uppermost position and out of operative engagement with the sockets58. This is effected by means of the connections shown in Fig. 2 which Iwill now describe.

Each of the rods 56 is pivotally connected at a point 61 with an arm 62of a lever 63 which is pivoted at 64; to the plate 3, and each of saidlevers 63 has a yoke 65 which is pivotally connected at 66 to a bar 6while the other end of each of the bars 67 67 is pivotally connected tothe pin or bolt 37 on the latch L. Thus, due to the fact that bar 38 isalso connected to latch L, when said latch L is disengaged from disc Reach of the rods 56, 56 will be normally held inwardly of the bosses 55,55 on brackets 51, 51, respectively for holding the locking dogs 53, 53out of operative engagement with the sockets 58 on doors D.

On the contrary, however, when the lever L is operatively engaged withone of the notches 12 of disc R, the latch L will be moved inwardly andthe rods 56, 56 will be correspondingly moved outwardly of the brackets51, 51 into the position shown in Fig. 6, so that the locking dogs 53will seat in the sockets 58.

In this connection it will be noted, as shown in Fig. 3, that each ofthe doors D is provided with a pair of sockets 58, one of which isarranged on each side of each of the said doors. Said sockets are openat the top so that when the door is rotated to bring one or the other ofsaid sockets into registration with the member 53, said member will dropdownwardly thereinto and prevent the movement of the door in eitherdirection until the member 53 has been released therefrom. In order tobring this about, it is of course, necessary that the notches 12 on thedisc R are so positioned and timed with respect to the doors D that thelatching lug 13 of latch L will drop into one of the notches 12 when themember 53 registers with one of the sockets 58.

The pair of sockets on each of the doors insures the lockin of the doorsagainst further rotation, regardless of the position of said doors whenthe electromagnet M is energized by pushing the button 33 and thenotches 12 in disc R are correspondingly elongated so that the dog 53may engage either one or the other of the sockets 58 on opposite sidesof either of the doors D.

Now, in operation it will be observed that the ratchet R prevents themovement of the doors in a clockwise direction, but permits theoperation thereof in a counterclockwise direction, so that ingress mayalways be effected under normal conditions to the right of the axis S,and egress to the left thereof, and under normal conditions theelectromagnet M is de-energized and the locking mechanism embodying thelatch L and the additional locks 53 will be inoperative with respect tothe locking disc R.

In the event, however, that an attempt is made to rob a bank or otherinstitution protected by one or more of these doors, a person within thebuilding may quickly lock the doors by pushing the button 33, one ormore of which may be provided, as may be required, at selected point orpoints so as to energize the electromagnet M, thus releasing the latch Land the additional looking members 53 and effecting the operativeengagement of latch L with disc R and members 53 with their sockets 58on doors D. Egress from the building will thus be prevented and asafeguard against loss will be provided which will make it possible toprevent the escape of the robber or thief and effect his capture.

The unlocking of the doors may be readily and quickly effected byauthorized persons from the exterior of the building by unlocking thecontrol boss 41 and pulling the handle 50 of the control lever 47outwardly, which operation serves to release the control bar 38outwardly and to effect the dis-engagement of latch L from disc R andsimultaneously effect the dis-engagement of the members 53 from thesockets 58, whereupon the armature lever A will be restored to normalposition by the compression of spring 34, and the mechanism set foranother operation. The energization of the electromagnet M is onlymomentary and continuous only as long as the push button 33 isdepressed.

It will thus be observed that I have provided a practical, simple,economical and effective safeguard against loss of money or valuablesdue to robberies or theft, which is capable of operation from within thebuildings sought to be robbed and is incapable of being tampered with byunauthorized ersons from within or Without the building,

I whereby the escape ota thief may be effected mally engaging said leverand holding said latch out of engagement with the notches in said disk,and an electrical circuit for men gizing said magnet to withdraw saidarmature from said lever to allow said latch, under the influence of itsspring to engage one of the notches in said disk to lock said dooragainst rotation, sockets at the top of the door, a dog for engagingsaid-sockets, and

means connected to said latch for holding said dog out 01 engagen'ientwith said socket when the latch is out of engagement with said notchesand for allowing said dog to engage one of said sockets when said latchengages one of said notches.

2. A. device as described comprising a shaft, arotatable door mounted onsaid shaft, a notched disk secured on said shaft, a spring latch forengaging the notches in said disk respectively for locking said dooragainst rotation, a lever connected to said latch, a magnet, aspring-pressed armature for norlnally engaging said lever and holdingsaid latch out of engagement with the notches in said disk, and anelectrical circuit for energizing said magnet to withdraw said armaturefrom said lever to allow said latch, under the influence of its springto engage one of the notches in said disk to lock said door againstrotation, a pin on said latch, a bar provided with a slot through whichsaid pin extends, a case outside said door into which said bar extends,and means for locking said case closed.

3. A device as described comprising a shaft, a rotatable door mounted onsaid shaft, a notched disk secured on said shaft, a spring latch forengaging the notches in said disk respectively fer locking said dooragainst rotation, means for normally holdin said latch out ofengagementwith the notches in said disk, means for releasing said holding means toallow said latch, under the influence of its spring to engage one ofsaid notches, sockets at the top of said door, a dog for engaging saidsockets, a lever, a plunger connected to one end oi said lever, a linkconnected to the of said notches.

EDGAR C. HALL.

